Central team inspects drought-hit parts of Maharashtra's Beed; farmers seek urgent relief

Central team inspects drought-hit parts of Maharashtra's Beed; farmers seek urgent relief

Beed, A central team continued to tour parts of Maharashtra's Beed district for the second day on Saturday to evaluate extensive kharif crop damage and severe drought conditions, during which the farmers sought immediate relief measures.

Central team inspects drought-hit parts of Maharashtra's Beed; farmers seek urgent relief

The farmers' key demands included financial assistance of ₹2 lakh per hectare to protect standing orchards, a subsidy of ₹50,000 for farm ponds, and the immediate opening of government fodder depots and cattle camps.

A prolonged dry spell has pushed Beed district towards a severe drought, devastating Kharif crops, drying up water bodies and triggering an acute shortage of fodder for livestock.

The central team, comprising Union joint secretary of the department of agriculture Muktanand Agrawal, state agriculture secretary Parimal Singh and Beed district collector Dr Vivek Johnson, assessed crop damages and interacted with distressed farmers.

The Bindusara reservoir, the primary source of drinking water for Beed city, has plunged to just five per cent of its live storage capacity, compared to 100 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The situation in rural areas is equally alarming. Percolation tanks in villages, including Morgaon in Beed tehsil, Vaidyakinhi and Daskhed in Patoda tehsils, have reportedly dried up, while groundwater levels have fallen sharply.

The prolonged dry spell, marked by a rainfall deficit lasting nearly 65 days, has left soybean crops scorched across large tracts of farmland, severely affecting farmers' prospects of recovering their cultivation costs.

In Daskhed, farmer Sudhakar Thombre told the central team that he had invested ₹54,000 to cultivate soybean on three acres but now expects a harvest worth only ₹9,000 to ₹10,000, amounting to a meagre 1.5 to two quintals.

Another farmer, Rekha Kokate, told the team that she expects to harvest barely 40 kg of soybean from her nearly two-acre plot.

The drought has also dealt a severe blow to horticulture.

Pomegranate and sweet lime orchards, developed over several years with substantial investment, are drying up rapidly because of the acute water shortage.

Farmers expressed fear that the loss of these orchards could have long-term financial consequences, as rebuilding them would require considerable time and money.

The crisis has gone beyond agriculture, with livestock owners struggling to secure adequate fodder for their cattle.

Brothers Vaibhav and Ankush Shinde of Bedukwadi in Patoda tehsil whose dairy farm produced around 130 litres of milk daily, said their existing stock of home-grown fodder would last only another 15 days.

Farmers fear that a prolonged fodder shortage could threaten dairy operations and further undermine rural livelihoods.

They said timely intervention was essential to prevent further damage to horticultural crops, sustain livestock and provide relief to families facing mounting agricultural losses.

The central team also inspected damaged crops in Vaijala in Patoda tehsil, and interacted with farmers cultivating onion, marigold and maize.

Onion grower Bankat Yede said severe water scarcity had forced him to reduce the area under cultivation from 10 acres to just one acre. However, even the reduced crop remained at risk as farm ponds had dried up.

Floriculturist Pandurang Maske and maize grower Kakasaheb Namdev Yede drew the team's attention to the impact of rising temperatures and dry soil on crop growth.

They said the adverse conditions had stunted plant development and reduced the size of marigold blooms, further squeezing farm incomes amid rising cultivation costs.

The farmers urged the visiting officials to assess the losses on the ground and ensure that relief measures reached affected cultivators without delay.

On September 26, the Maharashtra government declared drought in 265 of its 358 talukas, or 74 per cent of the state, amid rainfall deficit and announced relief measures, including crop loan restructuring, land revenue concessions, and power bill subsidies.

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division has the highest number of 74 drought-affected talukas, followed by Amravati with 56, Nashik with 49, Nagpur with 39, Pune with 35 and Thane with 12, including one in Raigad, three in Ratnagiri and eight in Sindhudurg, have been included in the list.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.